The Record: Struck out

STEROIDS are bad, and if you happened to play baseball during the steroid era, you’re guilty even if no one proved you used them. That’s the troubling message of this year’s Hall of Fame voting.

For one of the few times in the hall’s 77-year history, no player was selected to join the game’s greatest players in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The vote by the Baseball Writers Association of America had nothing to do with a dearth of qualified candidates. The ballot included Barry Bonds, the game’s career home run leader; Roger Clemens, the greatest pitcher of his era; Sammy Sosa, who hit more than 600 career homers; Craig Biggio, one of the few players in history to amass more than 3,000 hits and former New York Met Mike Piazza, arguably the game’s greatest hitting catcher.

The not-so-secret elephant in the room was steroids or performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds, Clemens and Sosa were among many players whose use of them has been proved or strongly suspected. Keeping them out, at least temporarily, was proper. If the writers wanted to send a message that drug-aided achievements would not be respected, consider the message since.

What’s problematic is that the writers’ self-righteous stance also omitted such deserving players as Biggio and Piazza. There have been rumors about Piazza and many other players juicing, but nothing has been proved. A conviction based on innuendo is not what our system of justice is about.

Of course, it’s understood that this was a vote by baseball writers, not a judicial review. Still, the sweeping condemnation of all who happened to play in the steroid era — roughly between 1990 and 2004 — was unnecessarily harsh judgment.

But it was in line with baseball’s peculiar sense of justice. Rules for entry into the Hall of Fame stipulate that a player must be of good character. That keeps out steroid users, but over the years has allowed in players from another era who were alcohol abusers, virulent bigots or a combination of both.

However, it has excluded Shoeless Joe Jackson, a great hitter in the early 20th century, for his alleged role in throwing the 1919 World Series. That’s a serious offense to be sure. But it’s worth remembering that Jackson and his alleged conspirators were acquitted in court. Also outside looking in for allegedly betting on games, albeit his own team, is Pete Rose, the game’s career hit leader.

The fact that baseball does its own thing is in itself not much of a problem. It as, after all, only a sport, which is something the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed way back in 1922 when it said baseball was exempt from federal anti-trust laws. However, in this case, we wish voters would have considered individual players and their achievements instead of swinging a bat at an entire era.

The Record: Struck out

STEROIDS are bad, and if you happened to play baseball during the steroid era, you’re guilty even if no one proved you used them. That’s the troubling message of this year’s Hall of Fame voting.

For one of the few times in the hall’s 77-year history, no player was selected to join the game’s greatest players in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The vote by the Baseball Writers Association of America had nothing to do with a dearth of qualified candidates. The ballot included Barry Bonds, the game’s career home run leader; Roger Clemens, the greatest pitcher of his era; Sammy Sosa, who hit more than 600 career homers; Craig Biggio, one of the few players in history to amass more than 3,000 hits and former New York Met Mike Piazza, arguably the game’s greatest hitting catcher.

The not-so-secret elephant in the room was steroids or performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds, Clemens and Sosa were among many players whose use of them has been proved or strongly suspected. Keeping them out, at least temporarily, was proper. If the writers wanted to send a message that drug-aided achievements would not be respected, consider the message since.

What’s problematic is that the writers’ self-righteous stance also omitted such deserving players as Biggio and Piazza. There have been rumors about Piazza and many other players juicing, but nothing has been proved. A conviction based on innuendo is not what our system of justice is about.

Of course, it’s understood that this was a vote by baseball writers, not a judicial review. Still, the sweeping condemnation of all who happened to play in the steroid era — roughly between 1990 and 2004 — was unnecessarily harsh judgment.

But it was in line with baseball’s peculiar sense of justice. Rules for entry into the Hall of Fame stipulate that a player must be of good character. That keeps out steroid users, but over the years has allowed in players from another era who were alcohol abusers, virulent bigots or a combination of both.

However, it has excluded Shoeless Joe Jackson, a great hitter in the early 20th century, for his alleged role in throwing the 1919 World Series. That’s a serious offense to be sure. But it’s worth remembering that Jackson and his alleged conspirators were acquitted in court. Also outside looking in for allegedly betting on games, albeit his own team, is Pete Rose, the game’s career hit leader.

The fact that baseball does its own thing is in itself not much of a problem. It as, after all, only a sport, which is something the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed way back in 1922 when it said baseball was exempt from federal anti-trust laws. However, in this case, we wish voters would have considered individual players and their achievements instead of swinging a bat at an entire era.